


A Truth that's told with bad intent

by SleeplessInGeneral



Series: Auguries of Innocence [2]
Category: The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Gen, Multi, lots of character mentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 21:09:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9460490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleeplessInGeneral/pseuds/SleeplessInGeneral
Summary: Finding parabatai was never supposed to be this awkward. It wasn't for Ella, at least... So why is it like this for Jessie?Or, those crazy people in black who think Ness is a fairy. This world has definitely gone mad.





	

**Author's Note:**

> After finishing Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy (I did that a long time ago), I now officially call Izzy by the last name Lovelace. But in Clary's case I call her Fairchild. I believe that it's like with Hermione and Ginny, though under no circumstance would I ever compare Izzy and Ginny and Clary and Hermione - they're all awesome ladies in their own rights - but where last names are involved. I can't explain what I mean by this.
> 
> So, Isabelle Lovelace. Moving on.
> 
> Ness was supposed to be something else completely, but I changed her last minute because it was something I had to do. My fandom mixes aren't very understandable by the masses. So... yeah. And with that being said...

Jessie was perfecting her sport stacking. She was currently standing at four seconds and eighty-two for a cycle, which would be considered a world record if she was allowed to actually compete, but she wasn't due to being a Shadowhunter. No mundane knew of her existence – aside for maybe her grandma Elaine and Aunt Rebecca and Becca's husband and kids. But that was okay, because they were family. And they didn't even know about the existence of Shadowhunters.

Well, maybe Becca knew. But only her. She didn't tell anyone else as far as Jessie knew.

Mom used to call her an "excessive hugger". Jess considered herself a pacifist, thus not wanting to take part in anything even remotely related to violence, but that was her legacy. Generations upon generations of Lightwoods, Lovelaces and Truebloods – as well as others along the line – were true fighters, but it turned out that namesakes ended up being pretty similar. Just like Aunt Jessamine said, Nate turned out to be as sadistic as her ex-husband was and Jessie grew to be, according to the ghost of Will Herondale, stubborn and proud just like Jessamine herself. They did differ in quite a lot, but the feisty, stubborn thing was there. She wasn't the family's "excessive hugger" for that reason – it was because she refused to act in missions.

Research, sure. Jess could very easily bury herself in books and conjure up a million and one solutions to a problem. Fighting, however, was a different thing. So when asked to take part in a mission, she usually refused. And then when the adults got mad at her she took a break in her room, only to quickly return downstairs and hug them, begging for forgiveness.

"Jessamine Lovelace, come here right now!"

"But I'm stacking!"

She packed her cups and mat and turned to the black sediment at the bottom of her mug. She hated it when small particles of tea got out of the teabag and gathered at the bottom of the mug.

"I'm not asking you if you want it or not, you will come down, right now!" When that didn't happen, Isabelle Lovelace came in, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her out.

"Mom, you're hurting me!"

"If that's what I need to do to get you out of your room, I'll do it."

"Did you ever stop to think that this may be abuse that you're inflicting onto me?" And they're back at the abuse-route. "You're my mother, you can't hurt me!"

"How many times do we have to go over this, Jessamine…? You and your ideas."

Isabelle left her at the library all alone, so she screamed "you could've told me you needed me at the library!"

"Jessa, this is a library! You can't scream here."

Tobias was the only one who called her Jessa. It was usually Jessie, Jess or her full name. And in rare cases she was "Jessamine Rebecca Lovelace". But not with Tobias. No matter how mad she made him, he always called her Jessa.

"Sorry!" She smiled an awkward smile, accompanied by a frown, and went in the voice's direction. There were Tobias, Ella and Ella's _parabatai_ , Romeo Cartwright-Garza. "Why am I here again?"

"Because of a search," Ella tried her nicest.

"It's a search after a person, not research," Romeo muttered.

"So what? It's still-"

"Those two, just like anyone else in this institute, have failed in locating a runaway faerie who has committed several crimes against mundanes and now we need to find her," Tobias said over the two. "And before you start, yes, it has to do with your Spidey-sense, and yes, I asked Ivy and Nate if either of them wants to do this with me, and they both refused. My parents will never let me take Will on such a mission. Your stacking can wait."

Jess huffed. "Fine. But it can't take long. I need to catch up on reading."

* * *

Ness was singing Michael Jackson to herself as she ran from authorities all over again. She didn't see what was wrong with her sleeping on the street and stealing from kitchens if no one caught her. The people in black tried catching her all the time. She was doing well so far, but it was going to be a while before they, too, were gone. Never the same people, never the same spot.

She stopped behind a pizza joint to catch her breath when she heard "you idiot!" That sound was alarming. She knew it usually meant they were onto her, but then she heard "there's no way even a faerie can get through this distance in less than a day!"

So she wanted to run again, but the sound of a gun startled her. "Over there, Tobias. I can see her." So she kept running.

A boy in black caught up with her pretty quickly, a girl catching up to them in time. The golden boy was wielding blades. The brown-eyed brunette girl had a few guns and daggers strapped to her waist. Ness was trapped. They didn't look that much older than her, but she was still scared. She was not armored in any means, but this girl – who seemed to actually be younger than her – was handling firearm and looked like a professional. That made Ness sick.

"She's not a faerie," the girl said suddenly.

"Oh really? What a surprise," Ness had to reply.

"No one talked to you. Do not speak unless-"

"She's like Mark and Helen. I just know it, don't question me, Tobias."

The boy – Tobias – held a blade to Ness. "If you're wrong about this, no stacking for you for three months," he said, looking at the girl. "Either you come with us or we have this conversation here."

"Do I really have a choice?"

"It's getting boring and predictable. Can I go home and continue reading?"

"Worst crime, Jessa. Absolutely not." The girl – Jessa? – huffed and frowned. "Don't give me that face! By the Angel, you're impossible."

"So let's bring her home and have your mom interrogate her! Threatening her is obviously not doing us any good, now does it?"

Ness saw the boy sigh in defeat. "Alright. We'll have it your way. And you-" he put a hand on Ness' shoulder- "you're coming with us."

"Predictable!"

"For all things that are holy, Jessa, stop it!"

* * *

She was banned from stacking for a few months. Tobias told Simon and Isabelle everything and the latter took away her mat, cups and timer, and locked them up in a place where Jess couldn't find them. She cried about it for a few hours, then dropped on her bed and grunted, face on the pillow. Then she started looking for it.

"Jessie, we're going to start the interrogation, we need you to write everything down." It was Clary. She was okay in Jess' books when it came to post-missions, especially when said post-missions had to do with her stacking. So Jess went after her.

"Name – Ness Bellefleur, age 14, born in…" Jess was just copying what she heard. She was also doodling at the edges of the paper. So this girl, who was two years older than her, was half-faerie and running away because her mom abandoned her at eight. She could think of much worse.

"Excuse me? Much worse?" So she said it out loud… Damn. "What is much worse than what?"

"Many things are worse than being abandoned at eight." The light-haired, dark-skinned girl eyed her with a threat. "My aunt Jessamine was questioned to no end, tortured and reduced to the level of self-loathing and hatred because she fell in love with and married a guy who just used her as a toy. And I know people who are just like you, half-faerie, Helen and Mark, but because they're half-faerie Helen was exiled and Mark was refused to return to society because they're a 'threat' to us Shadowhunters. How is abandonment, which led to pretty good survival skills, worse than exile and torture? If anything, it's the exact same level of awful! I personally think-"

"That's enough, Jessamine." Clary sent her a stare. "We have to continue."

* * *

At the end, Ness was allowed to leave. But this was an institute for people like her, like the redhead said. And there was proper food ("but you can never ask my mom to cook or even your amazing stomach, that I'm sure have survived trash-food, won't be able to stand it") and hygiene, things she didn't have for a long time. So she let herself stay. And besides, the company was hilarious.

From what she saw, there were a few kids in the institute. Most notably the Herondales and the Lovelaces. The former were Tobias, his twin sister Ella and their brother Will. The latter were Jessa – now she knew her name was Jessamine – and her brother Nate. Ness was not expecting the golden boy and his dark-haired sister to be such anime fans, seeing how skilled they were with weaponry – she had found herself around them handling weapons several times. Or the little dark girl to be such a loner. Well, she did expect that, seeing how she behaved. But she didn't see how she could be such a loner with all those people around who loved her. There were even a guy named Alec and his son Ivy (who names their _son_ Ivy? She had to ask them). Alec and Ivy were there a lot but she never saw anyone who might be Ivy's mother, so she had even more questions to ask.

She decided to ask those questions one day.

"Excuse me, Ella?" The brunette turned around from the blooming bush she was attending to in the greenhouse. "There are a few questions I need to ask."

"Shoot."

"Okay, how do I put this…" Ness took a deep breath. "Who exactly are Alec and Ivy? Is Alec married, or does he have a girlfriend, or what? And-"

"Woah, stop there, girl. Alec with a woman?" Ella actually snorted, and said snort turned to actual laughter. Then she stopped sharply. "Oh, right. You're new. Alec isn't married, but he's engaged. Our rules don't allow Shadowhunter-Downworlder marriage as far as Shadowhunter marriage goes, they will have to go through a different ceremony if they wished to get married, but Alec's fiancé wants to wait with it. His name is Magnus and he's over four centuries old. And they have other kids, Rafe and Max. Max is nineteen and a Harvard graduate. Early admission at fifteen, all under glamour. Rafe is twenty-one, has a warlock best friend, they live together in France and work in research of other forms of supernatural beings, forms that we don't have records of. Um, what else, what else… Right. Ivy is the result of my mother agreeing to be surrogate. Anything else?"

"Yeah. What kind of a name is Ivy for a boy?"

"I guess Max wanted to be creative when he was four."

"Oh. Okay. And… I think I have one last question."

"All ears here."

"What's the thing with Jessamine? She's just-"

Ella sighed and rolled her eyes. "She's just weird. She has to work on it by herself, but she's weird. A mix of genius and ADD or something like that. Don't bother her and she won't be a challenge." Ness nodded in understanding. "Now, I have a question. Is my dad trying to enroll you in Shadowhunter Academy?" The girl nodded again. "Good. It will do you good, get you to meet other people like us. Get you used to the Shadowhunter life."

"And I can't do it here?"

Ella turned back to her flowers. "It's recommended that you won't. Max will teach there this year. Trust me, it's best for you to be at his hands than ours for the time being."

Ness shortly thanked Ella for the information and went back. Now life was less confusing.

* * *

Before Ness left for the academy, Jess asked Tobias to pass her a note. The two grew closer as time passed. They even found mutual interest in cartoon weapons, like the Light Cannon from Steven Universe and the S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R., which – even Tobias had to admit – was cool. He was the victim of home-made S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. attacks every now and then.

Jess looked hopefully through her bedroom window, waiting for Ness to read the note and signal. She got a thumbs-up. That was a moment to celebrate. So she had to plan how to ask her parents to let her go to London and meet up with the family.

The note said "If you want to be my parabatai when you're back, give me a thumbs up. And even if not, write to me! –Jessa."

**Author's Note:**

> Romeo is one of the many offspring of Jon Cartwright and Marisol Rojas Garza. I ship them okay. I just do. It's sort of inevitable for me. They have five children I think (I don't remember).
> 
> Rafe's story is next in the series, and his life is kind of... How do I say it... What happened to him was inevitable too. So. I'm sorry. So very sorry.


End file.
